Purify my heart

 
 "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;
he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.
Then the Lord Jehovah will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness..."
Malachi 3:3-4

 

'Purify my heart, let me be as gold
and precious silver.
Purify my heart, let me be as gold,
pure gold.

Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire
is to be holy, set apart for you, Lord.
I choose to be holy,
set apart for you, my master,
ready to do your will.

Purify my heart,
cleanse me from within and make me holy.
Purify my heart,
cleanse me from my sin, deep within.

Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire
is to be holy, set apart for you, Lord.
I choose to be holy,
set apart for you, my master,
ready to do your will'.

Brian Doerksen

 

Brian Doerksen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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What Jesus sang

As Christmas Eve approaches, monks and nuns in their monasteries will chant Midnight Mass and many of the world's one billion Christians will sing some sort of Christmas music, secular or sacred. And so, we ask: What did Jesus sing? The answer is not simple. But perhaps of even greater importance is the question of whether what Jesus sang influenced the future liturgical music of the Catholic Church, which came to be known as Gregorian chant.

Jesus knew how to recite, rather than perform, the scriptures -- a practice that developed in the more than 300 synagogues that existed in Jerusalem before the Romans destroyed the Temple. This oral tradition of synagogue cantillation has survived unbroken among the Jewish people for more than 2,000 years and still flourishes today. Over the centuries communities in Spain, Eastern Europe and as far away as Iraq, Persia, Yemen and Uzbekistan have developed their own unique styles of cantillation.

Anthropologist Geoffrey Clarfield, writing in a leading Canadian newspaper, explores the relation between the synagogue music of Jesus’ time and Gregorian chant.
The Sacred Bridge, a CD recording that features Psalm 114, “oscillates between Latin and Hebrew, Gregorian chant and synagogue cantillation,” writes Clarfield. “The melodies are identical and despite the alteration between Hebrew and Latin you would think you were listening to the same song. In fact, you probably are, for no doubt this is a distant echo of what Jesus sang.”
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Geoffrey Clarfield: What did Jesus sing? (National Post)

Be holy

"Be Ye Holy - For I Am Holy (Lev. 11:44)

"If we are to attain to the Kingdom of God, and to a condition of eternal usefulness to God, we must in this life lift our minds to an entirely new plane of consciousness and thinking: to the plane of holiness - far above the natural, animal desires and interests of the flesh. Holiness is Beauty: the Beauty of Holiness: all else is ugliness. Holiness is Separateness and Purity: a Separate Purity: a Pure Separateness. The mental food that creates the transformation of our minds from natural repulsiveness to spiritual attractiveness is the Spirit-Word, continuously and liberally indulged in. "Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." Naturally, we are the very opposite of holy. To become so, more and more, is life's purpose: its ONLY purpose.

 Any time spent that does not contribute to this is precious divine time wasted: unfaithful stewardship. "Perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord" is a large enough command, and a high enough ambition, to completely fill any lifetime.
With God's bountiful and loving help, lift your mind above all natural childishness and foolishness, all interest in worldly things, all unclean fleshly habits and thoughts, all of the ugliness of the flesh, as anger, impatience, harshness, unkindness, selfishness, lack of sympathy and compassion and healing, forgiving love. "Be ye holy, even as God is holy."
What a joy! What a revelation! What a beautiful, noble company!
"Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness!"
-------
Brother G.V. "Rene" Growcott

Dutch translation / Nederlandse vertaling > Weest heilig
+++
2013 update:

"Aaron, Holy to the Lord" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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